Betting against Halle Bailey’s ‘one-in-a-million,’ ‘star-making’ turn in ‘The Little Mermaid’ is a surefire way to go broke

We’re in the final stretch of waiting for The Little Mermaid‘s theatrical bow, which will no doubt bring about the climax of the storied rhetoric the world has been fielding about the movie thus far. Indeed, ever since whispers of a Little Mermaid remake began circulating back in 2016, the notion (and now reality) of such a thing has been a rather explosively mixed talking point, given the vitriol surrounding remake culture and the love that the Disney zeitgeist has for the original film.

And then Halle Bailey was revealed to be filling the shoes (or fin, in this case) of Ariel, which caused a whole other round of back-and-forth on the internet, and, spoiler alert, quite a few detractors weren’t exactly good-faith players, so to speak.

But now, with The Little Mermaid‘s review embargo having been officially lifted, the consensus is beginning to stabilize, and it looks like Bailey has absolutely incinerated her doubters with her turn as the young mermaid, with even the film’s most furious fault-finders unable to deny that her performance was something to be admired and celebrated.

Indeed, Ariel may reside on the ocean floor, but it looks like everyone agrees that Bailey’s turn as the character will rocket her to stardom at warp speed, even if not everyone was entirely sold on the movie as a whole.

While all eyes may have been on Melissa McCarthy’s Ursula at first, it sounds like The Little Mermaid has, perhaps unsurprisingly, found its surplus of star power in the actual star of this show, and we can’t wait to see this spectacular watershed moment of Bailey’s career for ourselves.

The Little Mermaid is due in theaters on May 26.